I''m creating a tile-based 2D role-playing-game, and want to hear other gamer''s opinion about a part of the gameplay. It''s about handling 3 characters that can either be computer controlled, or controlled by other players (sort of multi-player).
If you''ve played secret of mana, you''ll know exactly what I mean.
I have thought about 2 solutions:
-There is one leader that is always in the middle of the screen (or on the edge of the screen, when he has reached the edge of an area). The other 2 can''t walk out of the screen, they are blocked.
-The leader is still there, but this time, the 2 players CAN walk out of the screen. You can still control them, but you can''t see them. Of course, they can use magic to return to the leader, if they are lost.
Tell me which one is the best.

I suggest using a split-screen method, once a charecter goes off of the screen, a third of the screen will become seperate and allows that player to still see her/himself. If, however, you would like to do it in a more traditional method, I suggest the Secret Of Mana method (Great Game ! Have you ever played Seikendensetsu 3? (secret of Mana 2)) This was a great game! It was for the SNES, released only in Japan. If you are interested in Emulation, there is probably a rom out there.

"Remember, I'm the monkey, and you're the cheese grater. So no fooling around." -Grand Theft Auto, London

I don''t think you should split the screen in half, but rather in quarters, so that up to 4 characters could be seperated. Possibly you could change characters by simply clicking on their screen.You should also have some way, like FF8''s Junction, that all the separate characters could communicate and share items and what not.Just an Idea.

After a day of thinking, i''ve thought of the following method: The players can go off-screen, but when this happens, they''re automatically warped to the leader. This way the scrolling can''t stop when one of the players get stuck for example behind a tree. Also if you jump of a high cliff, you don''t have to wait till the other players arrive. This happens when the 2 other players are computer controlled. Human-controlled players can''t walk out of the screen.